As explained in our earlier application, local authorities and highways agencies routinely test lighting and other columns to check their ability to withstand wind loads and/or reduced structural integrity through, for example loss of column wall section caused by corrosion. Tests are also routinely conducted for electrical and defects.
Structural tests include applying an artificial load to a column and measuring deflection, ultrasonic measurement of the wall section of a column and systems using eddy currents to determine the level of corrosion and resulting loss of wall section. Electrical tests are conducted to ensure that the electrical supply to a column is correctly maintained and that the lighting column is safe to the public.
Examples of known structural test systems and methods are disclosed in WO11142516A, US2009/034258A, US2014/0211487A, WO2014/078907A, WO2015/022213A, WO2013/007382A, JP2004125776A, US2009/034258A, GB2498793A and CN102944889A, KR2009/0108967A, KR2012/0093741A, KR101040215B.
Whereas these and other currently available methods may be able to provide accurate data and forecasted serviceable lifespans for individual columns, none discloses a method in which measurements of imposed accelerations, angular velocities and magnetic field strengths are taken and transmitted to a remote server for analysis using bespoke software. In this way the health of a column or a stock of columns can be constantly measured and remedial action taken to make safe any column found to be requiring repair or replacement. Thus an organisation responsible for a stock of columns of say 100 columns, or a multiplicity of such stock, can remotely check the health of each column or that stock or stocks and take immediate action to remedy any fault found by a site visit.
No method known to the Applicant provides a method which enables a user to check the integrity of a column stock remotely and to respond immediately to a problem occurring with a column which forms part of a stock of such columns through a subsequent site visit.
A further major disadvantage of all existing systems known to the Applicant is that all require a decision to be made concerning the number of columns within a stock to be tested and to what frequency that testing should be undertaken.
Thus, only selected columns within a stock are regularly or irregularly tested. Testing programs that are set up employing such systems are inevitably not able to take into account localised wind loads or ground conditions or electrical component failure.
Although column manufacturers are required to provide a minimum design life of twenty five years there are numerous cases where a column's serviceable life is far less, due to column design and/or localised conditions that are more aggressive than otherwise anticipated.
It can also be the case that the actual installed age of a column is not documented which means that a column could at any given time be past its projected design life.
Due to years of underfunding in infrastructure, stocks of lighting columns have frequently been found to include significant numbers of columns that are past their design life and therefore need to be tested to ensure they are structurally and electrically safe within the public domain. Unfortunately there have been cases of catastrophic failure, some of which have caused injury and even death.
A further disadvantage of known testing methods is that these generally require an operative to visit the installation and verify the structural health and electrical operation of a column. This can be a costly exercise in terms of testing administration and road traffic management. There is also an increase in risk to operatives while testing is carried out. This is particularly the case where the testing site is in a hazardous location such as, for example, on central reservations of motorways.
In common with our earlier application, the present invention seeks to provide inter alia an improved method and apparatus for monitoring the structural health of a column or stock of columns or individual columns within that stock that overcomes or at least alleviates problems associated with known methods and apparatus by providing monitoring equipment for location on and for connection to the power source of one or a plurality of columns of a stock of such columns, said monitoring equipment being operable to capture data relevant to the structural health of the columns being monitored and to transmit said data in real time to a remote server for analysis by bespoke software.
The present application also seeks to provide an improved method and apparatus for monitoring the electrical operation of a stock of such columns by providing that the electrical operation of the column stock is also monitored through the capture of data relevant to said electrical operation, this data also being transmitted in real time to a remote server for analysis by bespoke software.
The present invention is distinguished over the disclosure of our earlier application in that it provides a method of and apparatus for evaluating the structural health of a stock of lighting or like columns by means of a statistical analysis of dynamic and vertical deflection data measurements taken in X, Y and Z axes by means of column mounted microcontroller which includes a micro-electro-mechanical system device (hereinafter referred to simply as «MEMS» device) having a nine degree of freedom function.
To measure the operational voltages and currents, the microcontroller may also include means to measure the electrical parameters of electrical equipment supported by the column.
In the present invention, each MEMS device comprises an integrated unit having accelerometer and gyroscope functions each able to take the required vertical deflection data in the aforementioned X, Y and Z axes of the respective column and to transfer the collected data via a column mounted transmitter or communication module and central data hub including an internal connection to a remote server for analysis using bespoke software.
If each microcontroller includes means to measure electrical voltages and currents of electrical appliances supported by each said column, then such measurements are included in the data transferred to the remote server.